Review:

Speaker at Small Business Connect Up – 14th November

Meeting with Thare Machi – 15th November

Thare Machi Education is a local charity based in Leamington Spa and delivering educational DVDs on issues of health and wellbeing to communities all around the world and in the language spoken by the recipients.

We first met on Twitter during #leamingtonhour, we had a meeting at their offices, and now we’ll be working together in a number of ways.

If you’re interested you can find out more on their website, follow them on social media, and consider making a donation 😀

Doors Open

The doors of the Parish Church opened up at 11am, and TEDx Leamington Spa 2017 officially got underway. There were wristbands to put on, goody bags to enjoy, self-service tea and coffee, as well as a key on every seat, only one of which would unlock a box containing a special prize.

Lunch

Joel and I enjoyed our salads provided by the Saxon Mill, a destination gastro-pub in nearby Warwick, and then we settled ourselves into a spot on the balcony before the talks began.

Session 3

After another break, this time catered by by Nana’s JapaneseCafe (although we weren’t quick enough to taste the sushi as it disappeared in a flash), and during which my nerves started to set in, we found seats with a group of friends at the front of the hall near the stage.

Live musical performances continued through the evening, including some extremely accomplished kareoke and open mic sessions including some awesome rapping by Ross Sleight and beat-boxing by David Bentley.

July 2017

When she mentioned that the theme this year would be ‘Home’, I knew right away what my talk would be: ‘How to turn your home into a pop-up restaurant’.

This was immediately followed by something along the lines of ‘A TED talk? Oh, but I couldn’t possibly do that!’, until the following day…

At the Leamington Hour Live networking group Kimberley and Craig, two of the organisers in charge of TEDx Leamington Spa, gave a talk all about this year’s event.

They explained that the application process was to submit a video describing the subject of your talk in 20 words or less, and the deadline was only a few days away!

As soon as I got home from this event, before I could loose my nerve, I asked Joel to film me on my phone presenting my idea from our kitchen, and the following day I submitted my application:

August 2017

When the feedback email arrived in my mailbox I could see the first few words of the text: ‘After reviewing all the applications…’ and I thought to myself ‘Oh, that’s a no, isn’t it?’, so I was even more surprised and delighted when I opened the email to find that I had been accepted as a speaker!

Of course, I couldn’t tell anyone until it was officially announced. It was only a matter of weeks but it seemed like ages. In the meantime, I provided my written bio and two photos, as well as some video footage taken at Kitchenorium by a friend earlier in the year:

September 2017

Hooray! In early September my Speaker Announcement went out on social media. Here is how it looked on Facebook:

As the subject of my talk ‘How to turn your home into a pop-up restaurant’ is based on the social dining events which we host at our home in Leamington Spa, it was decided that my talk would be filmed in advance at a specially organised Kitchenorium event.

In preparation for being filmed, I attempted the 10 day video challenge set by Gary from Leamington Hour. The idea was to record a short video everyday for ten days and post them on social media. I managed to do seven videos and they weren’t on consecutive days, but it did help me to feel more confident when the film crew arrived at our TEDx Leamington Spa event. Here is my favourite of the seven:

October 2017

After weeks of planning and anticipation, the day of filming arrived, along with some nervousness!

The house filled up with eight specially invited dinner guests and six members of the filming team. We served a two course Italian menu with vegetarian option, and it was all caught on camera:

Just a few days later it was the Speaker Mixer – an opportunity to get together with the other speakers, performers, organisers, speaker coaches and volunteers. There was a bring-and-share buffet so I took along some of my famous chocolate brownies:

November 2017

Two weeks before the big day, the Dress Rehearsal was held in the event venue, and this was my first chance to see the video which had been edited from all that footage into a 5 minute documentary. It was an odd feeling watching myself up on a big screen, but also exhilarating!

Inspired by the ‘Home’ exhibition at local art gallery Slate, held in conjunction with TEDx Leamington Spa, I recorded a few videos on the topic of #HomeIsWhereTheArtIs and here is my favourite of these:

During the last 24 hours before the big day I was occupied with printing and folding Kitchenorium flyers to go into the event goody bags, and then helping out with filling the goody bags full of fabulous stuff: